Guilty plea in voter registration fraud case
The suspicious registration applications were discovered just before the 2024 election.
By CARTER WALKER
Votebeat
A man who was accused of orchestrating a fraudulent voter registration scheme in Pennsylvania ahead of the 2024 presidential election has pleaded guilty.
In October 2024, district attorneys in multiple counties announced they had received thousands of voter registration applications that did not appear to be legitimate. The announcements made national news, and the incidents were eventually turned over to state Attorney General Dave Sunday for prosecution.
Guillermo Sainz, who was in charge of the operation, pleaded guilty Monday to three misdemeanor counts of soliciting voter registrations and will face 30 days in jail, along with a $1,000 fine and 11 months probation.
Sainz was an organizer for the Arizona-based campaign firm Field+Media Corps, which conducted voter registration drives in Pennsylvania ahead of the 2024 election.
According to criminal complaints filed against Sainz and six street canvassers, canvassers were paid based on how many registration forms they submitted. That’s illegal in Pennsylvania.
“The Office of Attorney General determined that the crimes were not motivated by efforts to sway any election or voter rolls for any specific party or candidate,” Sunday’s office said in a statement. “Rather, the charged defendants were motivated to maintain employment and income by reaching quotas.”
According to affidavits in the case, one canvasser who was eventually fired for not meeting her quota told investigators that, on some days, she would “make up names and information to meet the quota, due to fear of losing her job.”
Local election officials in Berks, Lancaster and York counties started taking note of the defective forms and referring them to law enforcement.
According to county officials, none of the suspicious applications ever led to someone getting fraudulently registered. Nevertheless, now-President Donald Trump referenced the scheme during his 2024 campaign, falsely claiming fake ballots had been found in Pennsylvania.
Charges against the six canvassers, some of whom face felony counts of tampering with public records, are still pending.
A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for an update on those cases.
Carter Walker is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with Spotlight PA. Contact Carter at cwalker@votebeat.org.
